Saudi Arabia says it intercepted Houthi drone south of Mecca

Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia’s air defences destroyed a Houthi drone south of Mecca before it entered prohibited airspace over the holy city, a spokesperson for the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen said on Wednesday.

The drone was intercepted on Tuesday evening, according to coalition spokesperson Turki al-Malki. Houthi officials denied that the group had targeted Mecca.

Second alleged attempt

Al-Malki said the incident was the second Houthi attempt to target Mecca, following a ballistic missile launch in July 2017.

Mecca, which contains some of Islam’s holiest sites and is the focal point of the annual hajj pilgrimage, is a “red line” in terms of security, al-Malki said.

Saudi Arabia issued security alerts for Mecca on Tuesday. Mohammed al-Farah, a member of the Houthi political bureau, denied that the group had targeted the city, calling the allegation “an outright lie” in comments carried by the Houthi-run SABA news agency.

Regional attacks and shipping routes

The reported drone interception followed a week of attacks by Iran-aligned Houthi fighters that have drawn Saudi Arabia deeper into the war in Yemen.

The Houthis have announced several major attacks on Saudi Arabia over the past week, including an attack on an air base on Monday that they said was retaliation for airstrikes on Yemen. Saudi-led coalition officials said the air base attack wounded 13 civilians.

Saudi Arabia has blamed a separate pro-Iranian movement based in Iraq for an attack on Friday that disabled one of the kingdom’s most important oil transport routes, the East-West Pipeline.

The 1,200-kilometre East-West Pipeline links Saudi Arabia’s Gulf oil fields to the Red Sea and has served as the kingdom’s principal export route while shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been disrupted by nearly seven months of war.

The conflict has slowed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz to a trickle and has killed thousands of people across the region. The Houthis have also seized control of parts of Yemen’s Red Sea coast overlooking the Bab el-Mandeb, another major shipping strait, threatening Saudi oil exports rerouted from the Strait of Hormuz.